Niceville welcomes Griffin as AD, becomes last school to hire an athletic director in Okaloosa county
NICEVILLE — Niceville High is following suit in the trend of Okaloosa County schools separating the head football coach and athletic director responsibilities.
Replacing Grant Thompson, who will continue to helm the area's best football team, Daniel Griffin steps in as new Eagles Athletic Director. This makes Niceville the last high school in Okaloosa County to split the job of football head coach and athletic director. Griffin has served 21 years in the Okaloosa county school district and is a graduate of Fort Walton Beach High School, where he was a member of the 1991 state championship football team.
"I'm honored and blessed to be a part of the Niceville community," Griffin said. "It's truly a special place with so many rich traditions and high expectations. The community support is amazing. In my short time on campus I have witnessed firsthand what it truly means to be a Niceville Eagle."
Niceville's Principal Charlie Marello stated the importance of splitting the athletic director role and football head coach role.
"Every other high school in the county has already gone to a separate position for the athletic director and the football coach and that's something I want to try here," he said. "We had one person doing the jobs that every other school has two people doing."
Choctaw split up the duties by hiring former boys basketball coach Andy Thigpen as athletic director, and Fort Walton did the same in promoting former girls basketball coach Holly McDaniel to AD. Crestview recently hired Thomas Grant to take over for as head football coach for Tim Hatten, whose sole role currently is athletic director, and Baker hired Barry Gardner to run the football program while Matt Brunson handles athletic director duties.
Griffin has served as athletic director at the middle school level and has coached multiple sports. He has won two girls weightlifting state championships and was a runner-up three more times while coaching at the high school level.
"Coach Griffin has a tremendous amount of quality athletic leadership experience," Marello said. "Most importantly he was our athletic director when I was the principal at Destin Middle School so I have seen how well he works in that position.
"He has been the head coach of both the boys and girls teams. He's coached football, weightlifting, cheerleading, track and baseball. He's won a state championship as a coach and player and he carries both a Master's and Specialist's Degree in Educational Leadership. Like I said, quality athletic experience."
Grififn understands the Niceville tradition. He has always been an admirer of how they did things. He plans to uphold that same standard now that he is athletic director.
"I've seen how good this program has been from a distance," he said. "They have always done things the right way and I plan on doing the same thing. I will hold the players and programs accountable. I will also make sure we are always doing things the right way here.
"It is a great time to be a Niceville Eagle right now."
This article originally appeared on Northwest Florida Daily News: Niceville adds new athletic director Daniel Griffin to the staff
